The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-05-07
Special Contributors.
UNIVERSALISM In THE EARLY
CHURCH.
BY REV. ]. COLEMAN ADAMS.
(Chicago.)

AS the literature of the church in
creases, we encounter more and more
the evidences that the faith in immor-
tality, and the joyous realization that
Christ was the worlds Saviour, have
combined to interpret the utterances Of
our Lord as so many assurances of uni
versal salvation. The writings of these
early Christians abound in avowals of
belief in the limited nature of punish
ment. The church was full of UniyeTs-
alists. They wrote its most noteworthy
books. They guided its thought; they
fought its battles. They furnished its
representative men. | donot know that
there could be any clearer way of set
ting forth the popular sentiment in re-
gard to human destiny, than by taking
the eminent men of the church as ex-
amples Of the common thought. Of
course, leaders and representative men
do not stand alone; they always have
following; the sentiment of society
gauges itself in them. And if we find
Universalism common teaching of the
foremost men in the church, we may
fairly assume it to have been a COM
mon belief of the people.
About the year 100 A. D. to 200, there
was an elder in the church at Alexan-
dria, whose eminence as scholar was
unquestioned, and of whom all early
writers speak in terms of the highest
praise. He was scholarly, thoughtful,
devout, and brought to the defense of
Christian truth, large resources of clas-
sical learning, and great familiarity
with Scripture. He was the most illus
trious scholar of the church before the
time of Origen. Nobody thought of
him as hereto. He might have joined
any Young Mems Christian Associa-
tion of his time; and he actually was
the president of the most famous Chris
tian theological school of that day. For
the churches had at Alexandria, next to
Rome, the most populous and frequent
ed city, a center of literary and philo-
sophical circles, and the seat of religious
thought, seminary which stood first
in renown of all the ancient institutions
of Christian learning. 1t was school
more famous in its day than Princeton
or Andover in ours, and represented
the orthodox Christianity of the times.
To the head of this school Clement was
called about the last of the second CEN
tury. Yet he was a man about whom
even the faculty of Andover would have
hesitated, and whose election to prom
inent position in the faculty would have
been promptly vetoed by the board of
government. For he uniformly asserts
Gods universal goodness, the beney-
olent nature of justice, the salutary de-
sign of punishment, the publication of
the damned in hell, and their deliver
ance from suffering and exaltation to
bliss. "God is certainly the Saviour
of those who have believed" says this
orthodox president, land of those who
have not believed, be is the Lord, till
by being brought to confess him, they
shall receive the proper and well-adapt-
ed blessing for themselves" There
fore, indeed, he loves all, but converts
some by punishments, and others by
gaining their free-will." If this ortho-
dox elder taught in that strain, what
do you suppose the young men preached
who studied with him for the ministry
We happen to know pretty we'll what
one of them taught. There is no name
in all the early church, from Paul to
Augustine, so famous as that of Ori-
gen Adamantius. "He was" to use the
words of recent writer, ''as theolo-
gian, a miracle of industry and research,
facile princepS, among all the Christian
fathers, in the knowledge of sacred
and profane learning; as a man pure
beyond cavil, carrying his zeal for right
eousness to acts of an almost incredi-
BILE austerity, sealing in his old age his
devotion to Christian truth, under the
torture of the rack" twas the impair
tial historian Mosheim who called him
''the greatest luminary of the Christian
world, which this age exhibited; )" and
added, 'his name will be transmitted
with honor through the annals of time,
as long as learning and genius shall be
esteemed among men,"
Now Origen was a student of Gle